Conditional occupational segregation of minorities in the US

Abstract

We analyze the role of the demographic and human capital characteristics of minorities in the US in explaining their high occupational segregation with respect to whites and the extent to which they are locked into low-paying jobs. We measure conditional segregation based on an estimated counterfactual distribution in which minorities are given the relevant characteristics of whites. Our results show that the different levels of attained education by ethnicity and race explain a substantial share of occupational segregation among non-whites in the US, while English skills or immigration status are especially relevant for explaining segregation among Hispanics and Asians.

Keywords

Conditional occupational segregation Immigration Race and ethnicity United States

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi: 10.1007/s10888-012-9229-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.